Hi all, a slightly shorter ride report this time… 
not having a 1-cylinder bike in Foxton stable, I rented a Royal Enfield Scram 411 with only 680km under its belt. Traffic was light, and there was no fear of breaking any speed limits. I’m glad I chose the 411cc Scram over the 350cc Meteor – as I often had the throttle pinned to maintain speed up hills. I originally estimated a 350km range with its 5-speed transmission, but 300km was deemed my comfortable maximum to aim for when maintaining 110 kmh. The weather held, and before long I was sipping a welcome coffee at Taree. That was the longest route leg between planned servos, so no further range anxiety was needed today. Knowing 12 litres were consumed from its 15 litre tank, a quick calculation had me knowing I could ride another 50-60km if I had to. The question was whether this little engine was ready to rev all day for hours on end?
Pushing-up the M1 further, I popped-in to visit a mate for brunch at Lindendale (near Ballina). Another coffee was had, along with a brief explanation to his mum on what I was doing and the ride log I was keeping. She was either truly fascinated, or very good at feigning her interest – which was nice either way. With the clock ticking, I left Lindendale to soon find where all the traffic was – Surfers Paradise.
One notable new tech thing I tried for the first time on this ride, was using 2x GPS Navigation devices. The Scram comes with a dial-shaped nav unit next to its speedo, controlled by an app – so I used that for specific one-off destinations mid-route, and it had a nice colour display too. I had already intended to use my Beeline Moto, which was set to the entire journey’s .gpx file. I found benefit in being able to cross-reference both GPS units on occasion to validate each other. I think I’ll be taking my Beeline on more rides from now on. Good for system redundancy too, no doubt.
Downing a Gatorade at the servo had me realise I made the correct choice in forgoing my touring suit in favour of mc-specific jeans and mesh jacket… I found beautiful blue skies, a hot sun and a cool breeze. I wished I could have stayed longer, but a quick money-shot photo was needed before I started the return journey. I purposely did not park under the mistletoe adorned sign… this sweaty biker was not kiss-worthy today!
Nearing Grafton necessitated an unplanned stop to dive into my backpack for wet weather gear. I was hoping the rain would not start until around Port Macquarie, but alas.
I played it safe reducing to 95-100 kmh in the 110 kmh zones for the first hour of rain showers, in order to judge how planted the tyres and bike felt. Following car and truck tail lights at a distance to reduce the impact of their tyre spray proved to be a wise choice, with little impact on my overall completion time. Quick calculations at both Port Macquarie & Heatherbrae had me knowing I was within 1-hour of my planned completion time when leaving both servos. The heaviest rain started at Calga, but that just brought a smile to my face knowing I would be home soon – with a 1-Cylinder Piston Diversity challenge to submit for verification.
I was left impressed by this gutsy, little bike. Over the 1694km tracked between fuel stops, it averaged 4.4 L/100km with its worst being 4.9 L/100km. What pleasantly surprised me was the comparison with my BMW 1250RS - which averaged 4.6 L/100km @ 110 kmh last month. I have a new level of respect for my comfy BMW's fuel economy now!
not having a 1-cylinder bike in Foxton stable, I rented a Royal Enfield Scram 411 with only 680km under its belt. Traffic was light, and there was no fear of breaking any speed limits. I’m glad I chose the 411cc Scram over the 350cc Meteor – as I often had the throttle pinned to maintain speed up hills. I originally estimated a 350km range with its 5-speed transmission, but 300km was deemed my comfortable maximum to aim for when maintaining 110 kmh. The weather held, and before long I was sipping a welcome coffee at Taree. That was the longest route leg between planned servos, so no further range anxiety was needed today. Knowing 12 litres were consumed from its 15 litre tank, a quick calculation had me knowing I could ride another 50-60km if I had to. The question was whether this little engine was ready to rev all day for hours on end?
Pushing-up the M1 further, I popped-in to visit a mate for brunch at Lindendale (near Ballina). Another coffee was had, along with a brief explanation to his mum on what I was doing and the ride log I was keeping. She was either truly fascinated, or very good at feigning her interest – which was nice either way. With the clock ticking, I left Lindendale to soon find where all the traffic was – Surfers Paradise.
One notable new tech thing I tried for the first time on this ride, was using 2x GPS Navigation devices. The Scram comes with a dial-shaped nav unit next to its speedo, controlled by an app – so I used that for specific one-off destinations mid-route, and it had a nice colour display too. I had already intended to use my Beeline Moto, which was set to the entire journey’s .gpx file. I found benefit in being able to cross-reference both GPS units on occasion to validate each other. I think I’ll be taking my Beeline on more rides from now on. Good for system redundancy too, no doubt.
Downing a Gatorade at the servo had me realise I made the correct choice in forgoing my touring suit in favour of mc-specific jeans and mesh jacket… I found beautiful blue skies, a hot sun and a cool breeze. I wished I could have stayed longer, but a quick money-shot photo was needed before I started the return journey. I purposely did not park under the mistletoe adorned sign… this sweaty biker was not kiss-worthy today!
Nearing Grafton necessitated an unplanned stop to dive into my backpack for wet weather gear. I was hoping the rain would not start until around Port Macquarie, but alas.
I played it safe reducing to 95-100 kmh in the 110 kmh zones for the first hour of rain showers, in order to judge how planted the tyres and bike felt. Following car and truck tail lights at a distance to reduce the impact of their tyre spray proved to be a wise choice, with little impact on my overall completion time. Quick calculations at both Port Macquarie & Heatherbrae had me knowing I was within 1-hour of my planned completion time when leaving both servos. The heaviest rain started at Calga, but that just brought a smile to my face knowing I would be home soon – with a 1-Cylinder Piston Diversity challenge to submit for verification.
I was left impressed by this gutsy, little bike. Over the 1694km tracked between fuel stops, it averaged 4.4 L/100km with its worst being 4.9 L/100km. What pleasantly surprised me was the comparison with my BMW 1250RS - which averaged 4.6 L/100km @ 110 kmh last month. I have a new level of respect for my comfy BMW's fuel economy now!
